♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists on the internet. ♪
- Hi folks. I'm Bob Schrupp physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous
physical therapists on the internet
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Yep. They're gonna be glad they came to watch today, Brad
cause we're gonna talk about ten surprising things to avoid
when you have a herniated disc or a sciatica.
- Exactly.
- Are you shocked that we're gonna you know, discuss this?
- 10 of them, 10 of them.
- That's amazing.
All right first thing you wanna do,
Brad is you wanna avoid prolonged sitting.
People don't realize that this injury or this type
of problem is often a sitting problem
rather than a lifting problem.
- Exactly.
The more that your back is in this
somewhat rounded out position C posture.
Which Brad's gonna demonstrate right now.
That's putting stresses on the disc
which is pushing it out towards the back.
We've showed this many times on some of our other videos.
So you, you really wanna avoid sitting when I hurt my
back the one time Brad, where I threw
out my disc, I actually, I actually did not sit.
I would either stand or lay down.
I mean, just to show you how.
- Right, I know when I bothered mine,
I took a table that I could raise up to do my notes on.
- That's what I did. Yep.
- Yeah. One of the tables that go under the bed,
I lifted it up. The tray table
- No kidding.
- Yeah. Worked well for my notes.
- I know I doing an internship at the time
and I would do my notes standing on the counter.
By a counter, so, all right.
That again shows you how, especially,
you know like long card car rides
- As a matter of fact
a friend of mine's wife is having back problems.
She cannot sit and do her computer work and he's asking me
can I get her one of the elevating computer
desks so she can stand while she's working at the computer.
- Sure. That's a good idea.
- Yep.
All right.
Number two, a lot of people think, okay
I've got back pain, I'm gonna do yoga.
- Right.
- And that's gonna help me.
And there's just so many
of the stretches in yoga that you can't do.
I mean, it's gonna,
- Right.
- I think some may be fine.
Some are actually probably great for you,
but I you know, it would take us a long time to go
through which ones are bad
but obviously any ones that you're going like this.
- So I see pictures
of people doing yoga and they're in this position.
That's probably gonna make that disc herniate more.
- Right. Or, you know, they do this one
where they're down like this, you know?
- Right.
- All that could be really bad for your back.
So avoid yoga, sorry, yoga people, but
- Right. Unless you're gonna weed out
the ones you should do and ones you shouldn't do
but we don't have time for that right now.
- All right. If you have to sit
we wanna make sure you're sitting with support.
So you're gonna want to have some type of lumbar support.
If you don't have one,
all you have to do is roll up a towel
and Brad's got his famous little duct tape
on there or minor little duct tape.
I don't know what that is
and help hold it in place.
- Right. So I always, and I think both of us say,
sit on a firm upright chair.
Avoid the soft cushy furniture.
That's gonna promote that poor posture
- A soft couch or a soft chair is gonna kill you.
- Exactly. So here we got that firm chair
and I'm gonna sit here and you'll find,
you'll put that lumbar support right about the belt line.
You'll know cause it's gonna feel good.
You may have to adjust it per individual and right there.
Now right now I can tell that this is a little bit too big.
It's pushing my back out too far.
- Yeah. You probably want more of a thinner one like this.
- Yep and actually in my car, oh yeah that's better.
I have one of these and I have another one that
two of these are taped together and it depends on the day.
Sometimes I'll use the one.
Sometimes I'll put one with two in there.
Sometimes I don't use it at all,
but I've been working on my back for a long time.
I kind of have it tuned in.
- You kind of know what
What is what, you know, what we have found.
What I have found Brad with, with a lot of people is
that when they're having problem with their herniated disc
a lot of times they want more towel
than less when they're doing preventative
than they want less towel.
But so you, that's the thing, you can take a towel
and you can roll it up as big as you want.
And try it and see, you know, what
what helps and maybe have two sizes in your car.
- Exactly.
- Now, if you're on a couch
you have to sit on a couch, take a throw pillow
or something behind you and put it, you know, behind you.
Or one of those recliners or whatever
make sure you got, you know, like I said, a throw pillow
cause you're really gonna sink in otherwise.
- Right.
- Alright Brad, by the way
a lot of people are new to our channel.
- They may be.
- Hi welcome.
If you are the first time we wanna make sure
that you take a minute to just to subscribe, please, please.
Because we upload a video every day
and they're all here to design to help
you stay fit, healthy, and pain free.
- Yep. Simple little tricks like this can go a long way.
- All right. Number five, or number four Brad
is really avoid bending and twisting.
- Sure.
- If you wanna hurt your back, if you want to get
this is what you do, you bend and you twist.
- Sure.
- And when do you do that, Brad?
A lot of times when you're shoveling.
- Yep.
- And you shovel like this now I'm bent
and then I throw it over here.
I'm twisting, so.
- And then add on some heavy wet snow into that.
- Right. And you've got it now, now you're gonna hurt.
Okay. So number five, Brad, sit-ups full sit-ups.
This is gonna put your back in that position again.
And you know, I thought people all knew about this
but I still see, I see instructors on the internet yet
that are even doing this.
- Right.
- Sometimes. So they're doing the full sit up.
This is terribly hard on your back.
- Puts a lot of stress on that lower back
- And then to make it worse,
they'll do a sit up with a twist.
So now we're doing like a bend.
My back just hurt right there doing that, you know?
- No, but yeah, there's a lot of options to do sit ups.
I mean that does work the stomach muscles.
- Oh, it does believe me,
but it really puts a high amount of stress on the back.
- Right.
- And so does things like this
- Yeah.
- Working this way.
- Yep.
Matter of fact, they're gonna do a video later
on some of that, but we've got other ones too.
Okay, go on here, Bob.
- Number six. This is just kind of an obscure one.
But if you are riding on a lawn mower,
a lot of people are in kind of a bad posture
when they're in it and it's shock absorber.
- Right.
- And so you're putting a lot of stress
on the disc while you're doing that, so.
- I'm not a big fan of back belts, but if you're
out riding a riding lawn mower, you got a bumpy lawn.
I think that would a good
- That would be a good idea.
- You bet. You know, it's gonna
- Cinch you in and keep you up.
If you need to have to do it, you're actually
probably better off doing a push mower maybe, but
- Two acres is a lot.
- All right.
We get a lot of questions Brad, a lot, yeah.
We get a lot of questions too
about whether or not can I weight lift?
I, you know, when you have a herniated disc
I just don't think you can do it.
I mean, you can do some, you could maybe do bench press.
- Sure. Yep.
- You can maybe do curls,
but you certainly can't do you can't do squats.
I mean, if you're doing a squat and you're bending down
like this, I don't, even if you keep your back straight
you're putting a lot of stress on it.
- It's not worth
- Definitely not deadlifts.
- Right.
- And definitely not, I don't want
you ever doing bent over rows.
- I know. I see people do that a lot
The things we could talk about
- The things we could discuss, doesn't it go on and on Brad.
Okay, sleeping.
One thing you wanna avoid with sleeping is I don't
want you sleeping in a flexed posture all night, Brad.
So I don't want you laying on your side.
Where's my mic over here and laying
like this all night long, you know, it's just again
putting your back in that flex.
Now there's not a lot of stress on your back
in this position.
- Right.
- But it's just not it's better to be a bit straighter.
- If you're one of those real strong,
broad men that have wide shoulders.
I mean, that can put your back at a angle this way as well.
- Right and that's why we recommend
quite often is, you could take a sheet.
We also have something pre-made here,
but you put the sheet in a roll.
You're gonna spin it around like that.
And I'm, this is kind of crude right now, Brad.
- Right.
- But some people actually tie a sheet around them.
And then when they lay on their side,
they got some support here.
So they're not sagging here.
And when they lay on their back
they got some support and keep the arch there.
- It's that hollow spot that's created
by the pelvis right here.
The back is gonna dip in right there
where you gotta fill it in.
So that'll straighten and neutralize that spine.
- Good demonstration Brad.
Now there's pre-made products too.
Do you wanna show that one, Brad.
That's a McKenzie, right?
- Yep. This is a McKenzie sleep roll they call it.
A McKenzie sleep roll. You put it around here.
This is, this would be for a smaller person than me
but you can tie it here.
And if it was, if I had the right size,
it would come like that here
and then protect the back as well
or support the back I should say
- Let's show one little trick too, Brad,
for sleeping with you got
- Oh, I thought you were gonna do a magic trick.
Oh, you're killing me, Bob.
- I'm gonna make Brad disappear.
- Yeah.
- Okay. Actually, I'm gonna make you disappear.
So what you're gonna do is you're gonna lay
on your good side.
Okay. So let's say my pain's going down my leg here.
I'm gonna lay on my good side, which is this side.
I'm gonna lay on my right side.
And then I'm yeah, put the two pillows
- I'll help you out here, Bob.
- One pillow or two pillows underneath you
like this with the leg bent and believe it or not
sometimes that helps arch the back
up a little bit on this side.
And it helps relieve the stress
and the pain down the leg.
- But he would have pillows up by his head
- I'd have pillows here too.
- Yeah, I actually had a patient last year that I did this
to her and she just was happy.
It's like, oh, that feels so much better.
- Yeah. A lot of people have trouble
finding a correct position to sleep in at night.
I know a lot of people tend to sleep
in a recliner when they have back pain.
I don't know why it helps. It does.
I'd rather that you don't.
Because you're sitting in that flex position somewhat.
- It maybe someone has stenosis
and they think it's a disc, you know,
that may be one of those thoughts.
- And then it would help. Yep. Exactly.
Okay. Avoid prolonged bending.
You really don't wanna be doing any task where
you're like this in this position here
- And actually slight bending, like brushing your teeth.
That'll set a lot of people's back pain off.
So make sure you're up tall.
- Luckily, a lot of people know this already,
cause they get punished when they do it.
- Right.
- But if you are one thing that, you know,
as a hint if you have to bend over,
grab something to support it cause
it takes the stress off your back
- Sure. Right.
- I even say like for people who don't have back pain
and are gonna do some bending just to put your elbows
on your knees like this.
- Right.
- And it takes some of the stress off your
- Right. Obviously if you got the flexibility
and you're strong enough, you know
if you can get down in your knees and maintain that.
- Right.
- But there's a lot of people with knee pain,
that's not an option.
You know, they're not able
- That makes it difficult.
So all right.
The last thing we're gonna mention, Brad, is vacuuming.
Vacuuming, especially the wrong way,
is very hard on your back.
Cause this is what a lot of people do.
This is my vacuum, Brad.
- I was gonna say, it's a nice vacuum.
- So they do this.
They bend and they move.
They don't move their legs at all.
They're just bending and twisting it the whole time.
- Gotta reach under to get under that chair.
- So instead of what you should be doing is
you should be dancing with it.
You're dancing with the vacuum, moving your leg
every time the vacuum moves, your leg moves.
- And you actually walk with it too.
Yeah, there you go. There you go.
You can do the Waltz as you vacuum
- Better yet, you get one of those
little Roombas or whatever.
Those little circular vacs that go up.
- Yeah, like a little robot.
- Yeah. Little robot. Yeah.
- They don't have to bend at all then.
- Right. So, all right.
That's number ten.
Thanks for watching.
- We don't have to have them suffer anymore listening to us.
- That's right. It's over.